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help you dress. Tell Gertrude where your arms are, and she will send a manservant for them." |
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Ian turned away from showing Adam how to adjust the hang of his cloak so that it would not impede his sword hilt. "My squires, too?" he said uneasily. |
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"They must stand behind you. I would have all meet and fitting. You did not leave the boys' baggage with me, and even if the clothes were once fine enough, I can imagine the condition of dirt and raggedness they are in now. It was easier to make all new than to think of cleaning and mending what they had in the midst of the guests." |
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"Very well, but their fathers are well able to afford new finery for them. I will charge them with the expense." |
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"Oh, Ian, let me gift them. They are so kind to Adamare they not, Adam?" |
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"Yes," Adam the irrepressible replied, "but if you want to gift them, Mama, I know what they want more than clothes." |
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"Do you, love? How clever. Tell me." |
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"Owain wants a jeweled eating knife, like the one Ian used the night he wore the green gown. And Geoffrey is crazy to have a lute. He has been borrowing the minstrels' when they would lend them. He plays very well." Adam lowered his voice. "The queen took his away. She said it was not fitting. Ian, is it not fitting to play the lute? Mama has told me that King Richard played and sang, too." |
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"That silly boy!" Ian exclaimed. "Why did he not tell me?" Then to Adam. ''Of course it is fitting. If I had the smallest ability, I would play and sing myself. Perhaps Geoffrey did not understand just what Queen Isabella meant. Perhaps he played at the wrong time or place." |
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But Ian's eyes were furious when they met Alinor's over Adam's head, and she knew he had excused the queen only so that Adam would not hear something he was too young to estimate wisely. |
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